UNews - Innovation Catalyst Grant

Unique approach to shipment tracking earns Innovation Catalyst Grant funding

trevor.kenney — Fri, 22 May 2026 15:18:36 +0000

In a world that increasingly relies on dependable shipping options for everything from clothes to car parts to food items, an innovative new business has earned support from a pan-Alberta entrepreneurial program through a two-year, $250,000 Innovation Catalyst Grant (ICG).

Dr. Annie Ray and her start-up company Anandi Botanicals Inc. is at the forefront of supplying tissue cultivated plants for agriculture, horticulture, forestry and conservation. Their specialty is providing virus free plants to greenhouses and nurseries, berry growers, orchards, mining and reclamation companies and more. What makes their products unique is that they will soon be packaged in biodegradable containers that have been embedded with sensors that can track the conditions the plants endure throughout the shipping process.

Anandi Botanicals Ltd. is pioneering a new way to track shipments of their plants to enhance their health and sustainability.

“I have been working in the plant tissue culture industry for more than a decade and observed a gap in shipment tracking for plants. While sensors can be purchased separately to monitor shipment conditions, they are not integrated into a simple system for plant shipping,” says Ray, who has a PhD in plant biology. “I saw an opportunity to fill that gap with a more practical solution, since there was no suitable option available in the market.”

Her idea was to create packaging that integrated the sensors into the containers and, better yet, the containers would be made of a biodegradable material rather than plastic.

“We tried it with plastic packaging first and it worked wonderfully but we wanted something biodegradable, so we started talking with companies that used seaweed as plastics,” she says. “We were doing it on our own, but it was slow without any funding and that’s when I found out about the ICG grant.”

The Innovation Catalyst Grant (ICG) is an entrepreneurial fellowship designed to support recent graduates (master’s or PhD) in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The program provides a two-year runway for entrepreneurs to develop and commercialize innovative, science-based products and services that contain a hardware component.

“This grant is designed for recent STEM graduates who have really great ideas but because they are just beginning to establish themselves, they don’t have the business relationships or the capital to bring these ideas to market,” says Luc Roberts (BSc ’12, PhD ’23), entrepreneurial strategist for the Teaching Centre and Agility. “What’s great about this grant is that it supports the recipient with not only a salary as well as seed funding, but a network of mentors, peers and innovation ecosystem partners to help them.”

The ICG is administered by partner universities (��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary and ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge) with participation and oversight by the Government of Alberta’s Ministry of Technology and Innovation.

"Alberta is full of brilliant people with ideas worth backing. The Innovation Catalyst Fund exists to make sure those founders can build their companies here, hire here, and keep their intellectual property here,” says Nate Glubish, Minister of Technology and Innovation. “This cohort is proof the model is working. Twelve early-stage ventures, twelve reasons for the next generation of Alberta innovators to bet on this province."

Ray, who is also a recipient of an RDAR-SCAP grant for a conservation project, leases lab facilities at Synbridge. She says that with a successful model shipping plant products using her innovative packaging technique, she is already looking to other industries.

“This is not only restricted to the plant industry, but it could also be used for food and beverage, perishables, as well as pharmaceutical industries. This is only a start,” she says.

A start funded by a unique program that is bringing ideas to life.

Graduate student entrepreneurs earn development support through Innovation Catalyst Grants

trevor.kenney — Wed, 22 May 2024 19:02:56 +0000

Two exciting projects have received support from a provincial grant program that provides a two-year runway for entrepreneurs to develop and commercialize innovative, science-based products and services.

Greg McGillis and Mojtaba Nazariahangarkolaee (MSc ’18) have earned Innovation Catalyst Grants (ICG) worth $250,000 for work they are doing at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, supported by Agility, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s comprehensive idea and incubation shop that fosters bold ideas and helps students put them into action.

“The whole focus of the grant is to help bring research to market, and to help stimulate the economy and create jobs,” says Dr. Luc Roberts (BSc ’12, PhD ’23), entrepreneurial strategist for the Teaching Centre and Agility. “This grant, in particular, is quite helpful because it offers both a stipend for the person doing the work as well as seed money for business expenses.”

Roberts knows well the benefits of the program as he was a recipient of similar funding when the ICG was known as GreenSTEM and supported the launch of Allos Bioscience, a start-up he initiated with fellow ULethbridge alumnus Harland Brandon (BSc ’13, PhD ’21). While GreenSTEM was focused on green energy and emissions reduction, the ICG is much broader and simply encourages innovation with a hardware component.

“If you have a solid business idea, this program gives you the opportunity to take a good run at it, because for two years you can go after it full time,” adds Roberts. “You’re being paid, the bills are being paid and you can devote all your time to your idea.”

Greg McGillis

McGillis and Nazariahangarkolaee join ICG recipients who received funding this cycle from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta and ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary. The program selects projects annually from each of the province’s three comprehensive universities. Brent Puchalski (Paramoria Agri-Science) and Tyler Bennett (Coagtech Ltd.) were funded at ULethbridge last year.

“Each year is a new cohort and you’re all part of a pan-Alberta cohort of applicants from the other universities,” says Roberts, noting eligible applicants are recent graduates of a master’s or PhD program. “Because you are recent grads, most don’t have a lot of business experience, so to have access to all these business resources the program provides is huge.”

McGillis, whose Brain Care Technologies start-up recently finished second in Agility’s Launch Point Pitch Competition, is looking to revolutionize the process of detecting dementia in people and paving the way for earlier interventions to enhance quality of life and even delay the onset of the condition.

“The ICG significantly supports the achievement of our mission — empowering individuals to improve their cognitive health through early detection and monitoring of dementia so they can age well,” says McGillis, who is developing a headgear device patients would wear for testing brain activity. “This award expedites the hiring of additional staff, expansion of our collaboration with stakeholders and partners, and advancement of the development of our intellectual property to enable us to fulfill our commercialization objectives."

Mojtaba Nazariahangarkolaee

Nazariahangarkolaee’s Synaptag Technology Inc. is focused on improving RFID (radio frequency identification) solutions for animal tracking that can be used both in a lab setting with small animals such as mice and rats, or on a large scale in agricultural applications.

Nazariahangarkolaee says ICG funding will enable his group to expand its team with highly skilled talent and invest in essential hardware and equipment to fully realize the potential of their technology.

“The ICG program has additionally facilitated our access to two technical and business mentors, whose distinct perspectives and expertise will greatly support us throughout our entrepreneurial journey,” he adds. “Moreover, ICG offers quarterly and annual networking events which are an ideal opportunity for us to gain valuable connections, access resources and knowledge, validate our ideas and build our brand.”

The next deadline for applications to the ICG program as Sept. 15, 2024, and more information can be found on the Agility web page.

UNews - Innovation Catalyst Grant

Unique approach to shipment tracking earns Innovation Catalyst Grant funding

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